I recently found myself riding not within the flow of fun and life but with a focus of anger and jealousy magnified by to much to drink. In those moments I lost focus on place and time. Lost focus on my connection to my machine and the ground. I screwed up my knee. It's only been two weeks now and it feels like my whole life has fallen out of ballance. I am slowed to a snails pace by walking/hobling and busses. The focus of my love interest is in her own right having issues and withdrawling from me. I have seen her less in the past two weeks than since I met her. My parents are stressing out and focusing on getting old too much. Now money and hospital bills come into play.

Recovery seems so slow. I can only hope I can still yet recover all the issues of the world falling down around me too.

I find myself racing through life sometimes at amazing speed and missing what's around me. Noticing the beep blue of a womans eyes and the little scars that life has imprinted on the beauty of her but not the hub on her favorite ride.
The feel of the pavement....every crack and nook of the ride so I can go just a bit faster but not the fabulous view and amazing homes around me.
I find myself in this picture studying the rock face of a bike trail. A bike trail many will roll at speed with a bike which rides like an SUV. A rolling couch. It enables you to roll over anything but makes you miss the little nuances o the trail itself. Speed is what a down hill rig is built for. I find something else in this trail. A challenge of taking the same line. Of finding a way to do it on a bike hat is cazy for the purpose. A challenge of a differant sort.
J

An opening....
To be allowed in the walls of confussion, guarded trust
Rolling the pavement, carving the turns powering the hill
Side by side
Bliss to be with her
To see her smile, the gleam of those deep blue eyes, watch her body become on with her machine
Feed her soul
Cycle!
Bliss!

Twirling head.
Everything is so here right now.
Thoughts of alone, of together....
She wrote once that she must have happily ever after.
I have tried happily ever after twice.
What is happily ever after to me.
Is it her?
I feel it is but she has pulled back.
I need her touch.
Feel her lips.....

The selection of tools one uses for wheels whether its for truing or building does not always predict the out come. It's all in how you feel what you are doing. I hate hearing mechanics in shops go off about how machine built wheels are no good.

There are no machine built wheels. The machine simply screws on a nipple. It still comes down to the person lacing the wheel. In a living room, garage, bike shop or a production line floor it's about the experience behind the build. Not just the experience of lacing, tensioning, truing, gauging, logging, stress relieving, tentioning, trueing, gauging, logging and so on.

It's realizing the art that is created. A realization and understanding of what it is these wheels will do for someones soul......someones life. The chance to put color and design to use. In loving contact with the ground. To fly!!!!!!!

An opportunity to imprint design and personality on the experience someone will have.The need to envision and see the way grain structure of metals fit and interact. Pull and flex to the sway of the road, mountain, ramp, handrail, ledge, parking lot........To feel and know the transformation from raw ores in the ground, to the finished experience of rolling. Pedaling, pushing your body, clearing your mind.....Color,shape,experience, LOVE riding....

LOVE for what you do, who surrounds you and the experiences of your past feed a wheel build. Feed the experience of the RIDE!